What's Hot: Small and easy to carry, easy to use, works in portrait and landscape modes.

What's Not: Wish it had a full HDMI port.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 is Samsung's latest Galaxy Tab Android tablet, and Samsung has released several accessories matching the offerings for the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and other tablets. The accessories from Samsung includes the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Full Size Keyboard Dock, several adapters and the Multimedia Dock. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Multimedia Dock has a very similar design and features we saw on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Multi-Media Dock, except of course the docking cradle fits the smaller tablet size. Another big change on the Galaxy Tab 7.7 Multimedia Dock is that it bypasses the dock UI, giving you straight control of the tablet when you dock it.

Design

When we say that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Multimedia Dock has a similar design with the larger multimedia docks, it means the docks are essentially the same except the docking cradles' sizes fit different sized tablets. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Multimedia Dock fits the tablet in portrait orientation perfectly. If you need to use the tablet in landscape mode while in the dock, just flip the tablet and use the dock to keep the tablet standing up. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Multimedia Dock has a shiny piano black surface on top and a matted finish on the bottom to prevent it from slipping on a smooth surface. The dock is weighed to keep the tablet steady while standing in it.

As with the other Multi-media Dock models, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Multimedia Dock has a docking cradle with Samsung's 30-pin connector for you to dock your tablet, another 30-pin connector on the back of the dock for syncing and charging the tablet, a 3.5mm audio out jack for connecting to external speakers and a mini-HDMI port to connect your tablet to an HDTV.

Features

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Multimedia Dock is designed to provide a tablet stand for you to view your multimedia content, such as photos, videos and play music. Since you can lay the tablet in landscape orientation with the help of the dock, you can watch videos in a comfortable angle, or take it into a photo frame while not using the tablet. The audio out jack is also handy if you connect your tablet to external speakers for louder and fuller music playback experience. While the tablet is in the dock, you can charge it and sync it with your computer using the charger and cable that come with your Galaxy Tab 7.7. The dock would have been a complete charging/syncing/multimedia consumption solution if it had come with a full sized HDMI port. Alas, it comes with a mini-HDMI port and you must get an adapter to stream the content on the tablet to an HMDI capable TV.

We are glad to say that Samsung excludes the Dock UI found on the first patch of Multi-Media Docks for the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and gives us the direct access to the tablet. When you dock the tablet in, it stays in the lock screen with a clock until you unlock it. All the functions on the Android tablet work as expected, and if you start a photo slide show, it will run it nicely in the dock.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Multimedia Dock is a great docking solution for those who want to prop up their tablet for multimedia viewing, video conferencing and charging/syncing comfortably. The dock is small and easy to carry, and it's very easy to use. The audio and HDMI out ports are a nice touch, we only wish the HDMI port is a full HDMI out port since the dock has plenty of real estate for the port, and it'd saved users to buy and carry another adapter.